Hicks House

stuffed acorn squash

Anyone who knows me, knows I’m not much of a cook. I’m an avid recipe searcher – but generally lack at the execution aspect. With the exception of a few things that I make (all things that involve the oven not the stove top) Ken is the main cook in our house since we prefer to eat non-burnt, non-raw inside food. However, last week my sister posted a photo of an acorn squash she had cooked and it just looked amazing. Then when I went to the grocery store over the weekend there they were right up front on display and on sale Acorn squash. I HAD to have one. So I bought it.

(Ken opens fridge)
Ken: What is this thing?
Me: It’s an acorn squash.
Ken: What do you do with it?
Me: I have no idea. Nicole posted a picture on Facebook and it looked really good so I got one.
Ken: Have you ever had it before?
Me: No. But I bet it’s awesome. (Text’s Nicole to see how she cooked it Answer “I googled it.” Crap now I have to google it. I have this weird looking squash thing and no idea how to even begin cooking it.)

So we looked up a bunch of recipes and most called for ingredients we didn’t have. Since I had not planned ahead and already gone to the store, this was no good so we decided to take a couple aspects of several different recipes and make our own. What’s the worst that could happen? If it totally sucks we could just order pizza right?

Most of the recipes called for baking it with butter and brown sugar and serving it as a side dish. (which is what my sister did) That seemed pretty good, however that seemed like way too much squash to have as a side for two people, and a lot of work for just a side dish so we decided to turn it into more of a meal.

BEST IDEA EVER I’m not even remotely exaggerating when I say that this was not only the best meal I’ve had at home in a long time, it’s also quite possibly the best meal I’ve had PERIOD in a long time. It captured all of the feelings of fall in a single meal. It was so good I decided to post my first (and with my skills possibly my last) recipe.

So here’s what we did so you can create this masterpiece yourself:

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 65 minutes (it’s worth the wait I promise)

Ingredients:

1 medium to large acorn squash
3 links pre-cooked italian style chicken sausage (you could use pork sausage as well just make sure you cook it)
1 cup dry stuffing mix (we used turkey flavor because that’s what we had)
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup diced onion
2 cloves diced garlic (if you’re using jarred minced garlic this is 2 teaspoons)

Preheat oven to 400. If using the pre cooked sausage links cut into 1/4 inch thick slices then quarter them. In a large bowl combine stuffing mix until most of the liquid is absorbed. (we had a little extra – no big deal) Add the sausage, garlic and onion and mix.

Cut the acorn squash lengthwise and clean out, deseed the cavity. Place the two halves on a cookie sheet and press as much of the stuffing mixture into each cavity as you can fit allowing it to mound up on top. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes until the stuffing starts to brown on the top. Remove from oven and tuck aluminum foil around the squash halves. Return to oven and cook an additional 30-35 minutes until squash is fork tender.

Remove from oven and enjoy!

Mix stuffing & broth

dice sausage

cut acorn squash in half lengthwise

hollow out seeds

stuff it

wrap in foil

enjoy!

If you remember back in September I posted about the beginnings of our living room as well as the inspiration room. In case you need a little refresher here is the inspiration

Contemporary Living Room by Durham Interior Designers & Decorators Heather Garrett Design

We’re getting closer, the sofa we ordered came in. Due to the size of the room we opted to get the loveseat rather than the full sofa so as not to crowd the room and have space on either side to walk around.

The new sofa

As you can see the sofa in the inspiration has nailhead trim on the arms however the chairs we purchased have the nailhead so we thought it better to forgo it on the sofa which is a more substantial investment than the chairs. It has the streamlined contemporary look in the arms and after living with for a little while I actually like ours better. It’s less stuffy.

View from the side of the sofa

view 2 looking into the TV room

We also decided to lay it out with the sofa facing the fireplace rather than perpendicular. Our room is open to the kitchen where the design room seems to be closed off and we thought it important to create the feeling of a separate space and avoid the bowling alley look.

If you notice there are new baubles on the mantle as well. The flame sculpture we fell in love with at a local decor store and the vases were a gift from my Aunt’s who ironically enough had not previously seen the room. I think they look perfectly at home up on the mantle.

The blank canvas is another project I plan to paint it in an abstract design using the colors of the sculpture to pull the design in more. I also want to sew some throw pillows for the sofa and the chairs. The ones that came with the sofa were hideous and way too large in scale to be recovered for this space.

It’s coming along! On the list of to do’s for this room we’ve got: